InstantSearch.js FAQ

The ratingMenu doesn’t support float values. We recommend storing an integer representation of this value in your records (e.g., 0.5 * 10 = 5) and display the original value in your UI.

To search only when the query is longer than a certain length, you can implement a proxy search client. Then, you can add a condition (e.g., query.length > 3).

The uiState only works when the widgets responsible for each UI state attribute are mounted. For instance, a searchBox widget is necessary to provide a query.

The uiState passed to initialUiState or via routing needs to be nested per index. For example, if you only have a root index called “instant_search”, you should use a value like { instant_search: { query: 'query' } }.

If you want to change, for example, “query into “q” in routing, you need to use the stateMapping functions to:

• first, in stateToRoute, return an object containing “q” for the query,
• then, in routeToState, replace that “q” again with “query”.

If you want to group, for example, “turquoise”, “ocean” and “sky” under “blue”, the recommended solution is to group them at indexing time. You can either add the group name as a separate attribute to globally filter on, or add both values in an array to make both the group and the individual value show up in the list.

For example, with the following dataset:

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[
  {
    "objectID": "1",
    "color": "turquoise"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "2",
    "color": "ocean"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "3",
    "color": "sky"
  }
]

You could create an additional attribute and use it for faceting:

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[
  {
    "objectID": "1",
    "color": "turquoise",
    "colorGroup": "blue"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "2",
    "color": "ocean",
    "colorGroup": "blue"
  },
  {
    "objectID": "3",
    "color": "sky",
    "colorGroup": "blue"
  }
]

Or you could list the individual colors and their groups so you can use them both for faceting:

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[
  {
    "objectID": "1",
    "color": [
      "turquoise",
      "blue"
    ]
  },
  {
    "objectID": "2",
    "color": [
      "ocean",
      "blue"
    ]
  },
  {
    "objectID": "3",
    "color": [
      "sky",
      "blue"
    ]
  }
]

When the search result is the same, some components (templates) may skip re-render.

You can use a panel widget to access the results, and use the hidden function to hide a refinement based on how many facet values it has:

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instantsearch.widgets.panel({
  hidden(options) {
    const facetValues = options.results.getFacetValues('brand');
    return Array.isArray(facetValues) ? facetValues.length <= 1 : false;
  },
})(instantsearch.widgets.refinementList)({
  container: '#brand-list',
  attribute: 'brand',
})

To search only when the query is longer than a certain length, you can use the searchFunction to add a condition in which you don’t call helper.search().